WATER, SOIL AND SOCIOMETABOLIC FRACTURE OF AGRIBUSINESS. Fruit activity in Petorca, Chile

We inquire the socio-ecological transformations that the agribusiness generates in the territorial dynamics through the concept of social metabolism. The study consists in; a) the method of estimation of virtual water, for the calculation of water volumes used in the fruit sector and its impacts on water availability in the basins, b) analysis of the territorial transformation of the social relations on the use of land and the different kinds of crops. We take as a case study the Petorca Province in Chile, a place that had experienced an intense territorial conflict regarding the water issue, caused by the private water management in Chile, fruit agribusiness and the effects of long periods of droughts. The results show the deepening of a socio-metabolic rift on the territory, generated by the intensification of fruit exportation. This rift made peasant agriculture unviable by provoking territorial dynamics where small farmers do not have water to raise animals and to plant crops for their subsistence.